The Frozen Horror Chronicles (HeroQuestFans)

[Kurgan]

The (FIVE) heroes began Quest 10 of the Frozen Horror this past Saturday and this coming Saturday will forge ahead! We will take a break July 8th but should get things finished probably by the 22nd and start Rise of the Dread Moon (which releases on the 17th, I should have it by then!).

Who wants to join us for the finale?

It would be super smooth to have our original heroes like PSK (aka Knuckelhead) and StrangeBus join us for the final push. The Heroes are on their quest now to find the Crystal Key to unlock the final battle with the Frozen Horror. Can they survive?

[Kurgan]

I'll very briefly summarise the search rule changes that I made, and whilst they are deceptively simple it usually does take some time for the ramifications to sink in. (Also bear in mind these rules are used in combination with the 'looting' action for chests mentioned elsewhere)...

Of course those all sound nice, not so much to make the game any simpler, but they would certainly make the game EASIER.

if I recall correctly, only two types of traps do instant, unblockable damage (and only two leave a "permanent hazard" though one does leave a persistent hazard that can be later disarmed if desired). Heroes already have to roll dice to see if the other types of traps really do damage, and so you'd be giving them yet another chance to avoid damage (and even remove the trap, which is unnecessary in the case of all but the persistant hazard traps, meaning basically a Pit or Fallen Block trap and to a lesser extent the Swinging Axe trap).

As Zargon I am perfectly fine with reminding the heroes if they already searched a room, so there will never be a problem with having to search for traps or secret doors multiple times (except on those very rare quests where special rules limit searches, see Forsaken Tunnels of Xor Xel).

A hero searching a room for treasure isn't going to trigger floor traps, only active furniture traps. I don't require players to walk up to a piece of furniture to search it or obtain the treasure contained therein. One can always reason that the trap square was the one they didn't touch to trigger whatever trap. It is a very rare case (I think two instances come up, both within the Frozen Horror, which I consider to be errors due to lack of playtesting) where the Disarming function can be used to "cheat" and avoid a trap one might otherwise trigger if one had to use movement squares to reach the trap in question. When searching I simply reveal any and all traps in the room/corridor the Hero is in. EQP & BQP are fond of the "undetectable" traps, but even there my one concession (not required by the base rules) is to say there is some sense of danger (without noting the specific square). This alerts them at least that they should probably be jumping squares, but there is no guarantee they will avoid the trap, it simply gives them another "chance" to avoid them, using an existing, and even planned mechanic from the draft notes. Most heroes don't think to use it, so I have yet to come across any "bunny hoppers." Rolling a white shield is rather difficult, so jumping two squares (in the hopes that they are not traps) is not much of a cheat, in my mind.

So yeah, you choose you how play, I don't think I'll implement any of those. The one idea I think appealed to me was the one where if you happen to step on the exact square of a secret door tile, you find it, but to me that simply removes the need to expend an action to search... that will just encourage heroes to walk around the perimeter of each room, and doesn't end up saving any real time. Most heroes I see just move through a room, they don't stop to maneuver around unless they are doing so in combat.

Occasionally I will get heroes who like to role play walking up to chests, but I have had the interesting fact of heroes regrouping to reduce the impact of Wandering Monsters. These packs LOVE to give them in multiples... so edging your hero into a corner, and the other heroes providing a protective screen (or at least bunching up in corridors) helps prevent them getting picked off and killed in this fashion (especially the poor Wizard!). That to me is just good strategy to beat what was put out before them. I could simply rewrite the quest to remove all the times they'd want to use that I suppose, but I'd rather see if they can win it the way it was written.

Granted, like you, I provide them a little bit of help with those modifications, but I think it evens out in the end. If the quests weren't so broken to begin with I'd probably be going the opposite direction, trying to make the quests harder...

Edit: Too ranty and off topic? I apologize. Whenever I respond to posts like these I sound like I'm saying you're playing it wrong, but I don't mean that, I just mean why I don't personally go more in that direction. Personal preference... and a lot depends upon the people you regularly play with as well, probably.

[Kurgan]

Part 3 of Quest 10 was kind of rough. We had lots of technical issues constantly interrupting the stream for several minutes on and off. I think this was partly because my OS and browser both decided to silently update (and demand I restart). The usual unstable connection and connection interrupted issues were an annoyance, but the Heroes progressed a few more rooms...

I'm offering Tuesday afternoon (around 5pm CST) as an alternate time to try to pick up some of the slack (if anyone is available) and even Friday afternoon at our old time slot (2-4pm CST). Heroes welcome! Join us on http://www.twitch.tv/heroquestfans but check the Discord first!

[Kurgan]

Next Saturday may be the final part of this long journey... the Heroes have a tough final battle ahead of them. Bring your gold coins to twitch to help them out! Call for heroes!


And if you want to watch the previous archives of the campaign, in order, here is the playlist (part 5 was missing, so I re-uploaded that today): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pUxZ9v1U54&list=PLzUPPmTBi5hQoqnLsw4QKFtGzemar0mTo&index=6

[Kurgan]

The quest pack is over... the heroes triumphed! The Barbarian, Rogue, Elf, Knight and Alchemist/Wizard have made it through and the enemy is defeated. See above for the full playlist!

Special thanks to all the Heroes who played and all the chatters who interacted over the year+ it took us to complete this one!

[HispaZargon]

Congrats for all. Surely it was a great challenge!

[Kurgan]

Oh yes, and we have now gone on to conquer Mage of the Mirror as well. The heroes have become so powerful (with my upgrade system, and use of some extra things from the draft notes... thanks lucapaschi) that they have been breezing through Crypt of Perpetual Darkness (we are partway through Quest 9 already). At this rate they may be "retiring" soon in favor of new heroes!

I will say though, the battle with Sinestra dragged out for about three and a half hours (yes, I had saved Chaos and Evil Wizard cards specifically to make that battle epic, after the two part final quest!).

I was about to say we are about "done" with the "hard" expansions, but I shouldn't say that yet because we've also started Jungles of Delthrak. Against the Ogre Horde will be next after CoPD is finished (we run two campaigns at once... one on Fridays and one on Saturdays).

I suppose there's always WOM, Dark Company, and the future Wizard and Dwarf quest packs to think of! At our present rate of progress I think we have about 3-4 years of official content left to stream.